Soccer: Italy's Serie A in shock, with top clubs set to go out on penalties - Sports - International Herald Tribune

ROME — A week after winning the World Cup, Italy was reeling from the biggest blow to its domestic soccer in decades after four top clubs were penalized for match-fixing.

Italy's most successful club, Juventus, along with Fiorentina and Lazio were punished with relegation to the second division, Serie B, along with point deductions. Juventus is to start its Serie B campaign with a deficit of 30 points; Fiorentina would be at minus 12; and Lazio is to begin at minus 7.

The fourth penalized club, AC Milan, which is owned by the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, is to remain in Serie A but with a deficit of 15 points.

Italy has descended from World Cup champions "to hell," a front-page editorial in the leading daily newspaper Corriere della Sera read Saturday.

As teams prepared appeals to the verdict, delivered late Friday by an Italian sports tribunal, fans braced for an exodus of prized players, such as the national team captain, Fabio Cannavaro, and the star goalkeeper, Gianluigi Buffon, both of Juventus.

"This sentence on soccer strikes at nearly 20 million fans," said Berlusconi's spokesman, Paolo Bonaiuti. "Our best players will be forced to play abroad. Well done. Justice served."

Even Italy's justice minister, Clemente Mastella, weighed in against the verdict, saying it mostly punished fans.

"At least I'm not the 'sports' justice minister. I can't agree with the sentence," Mastella said.

"I don't believe that the whole system is rotten."

Many fans and officials, however, said that strong punishments were needed to purge the sport of chronic corruption. Prime Minister Romano Prodi said that the guilty "have to pay, even if we are world champions."

The scandal broke in May with the publication of intercepted telephone conversations between a Juventus official and the Italian soccer authorities, in which they discussed refereeing appointments.

In addition to punishing the clubs, the tribunal barred a number of team officials from the game for varying periods.

The former Juventus general manager, Luciano Moggi, who has been at the center of the scandal, was banned for five years and the ex-president of the soccer federation, Franco Carraro, for four and a half years.

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"We're awaiting the appeal," the chairwoman of Roma, Rosella Sensi, said. "There's no reason to hurry to judgment or celebrate."

"Most of all, we need to respect the feelings of all the fans who will be penalized," Sensi said.

Livorno, Parma and Empoli come next in last season's revised Serie A standings, meaning that those three clubs are set to qualify for the UEFA Cup.

However, Empoli does not have a license to play in UEFA competitions, and Milan was maneuvering to take its spot.

Milan's Web site said that the team could "smile" after the verdicts. "Someone in the judges' chambers made an error with their math, or wasn't aware of the existence of UEFA licenses," the site said.

Empoli said Saturday that it would make an urgent application for a UEFA license on Monday.

The demotion of Juventus, Lazio and Fiorentina is certain to prompt a transfer merry-go-round across Europe. A total of 11 players from those clubs were on the Italian and French teams that made the World Cup final.

Juventus, with eight of these players, is likely to be hardest hit in the transfer market, given that its punishment would effectively consign it to Serie B for the next two seasons.

The teams are expected to present their appeals in the coming days. The process has to be hurried so that it can be completed by July 25, the UEFA deadline for the Italian federation to submit its list of teams for next season's Champions League.